Yale New Haven Hospital receives gift to establish Dr. KJ and Linda Lee Visiting Professorships for Physician Wellness and Patient Experience

New Haven, CT (July 27, 2022) – Yale New Haven Hospital (YNHH) has announced the establishment of The Dr. KJ and Linda Lee Visiting Professorship. Renowned clinicians and experts will provide annual lectures on the topics of physician wellness and patient experience. Each topic will be addressed in alternating years and in various clinical specialties beginning next spring. The Lees have funded the lectures for 10 years.

Dr. Lee served as an associate clinical professor of Surgery-Otolaryngology at Yale School of Medicine and is a retired otolaryngologist from Southern New England Ear Nose and Throat. He is the recipient of three Presidential Citations for Otolaryngology-Head and Neck and continues to be actively engaged in many international educational exchange programs with China. Linda Ho Lee is a biologist who attended Lycée Marie Curie in Saigon, South Vietnam, and received her degree from Vassar.

Through their own experiences, the Lees were motivated to enhance physician education with a focus on physician wellness and patient experience. Ultimately, they wish to emphasize the importance of creating an exceptional patient experience and to help improve the increasingly high rate of physician fatigue and burn out that impacts doctors, their families, and their patients.

“We are truly honored by the foresight and generosity of the Lees to assist us in addressing these critically important topics through visiting professorships. Patient experience is a top priority and the wellness of those who treat them is equally crucial,” said Stephen Huot, MD, PhD, director of Graduate Medical Education, Yale New Haven Hospital; senior associate dean, Graduate Medical Education, and professor of Medicine, Yale School of Medicine.

Yale New Haven Hospital (YNHH), part of Yale New Haven Health, is a nationally recognized, 1,541-bed, not-for-profit hospital serving as the primary teaching hospital for the Yale School of Medicine (YSM). Founded as the fourth voluntary hospital in the U.S. in 1826, today, YNHH has two New Haven-based campuses, and also includes Yale New Haven Children's Hospital, Yale New Haven Psychiatric Hospital and Smilow Cancer Hospital. YNHH has received Magnet designation from the American Nurses Credentialing Center, the nation’s highest honor of nursing excellence. YNHH has a combined medical staff of about 4,500 university and community physicians practicing in more than 100 specialties. www.ynhh.org